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'The Bachelor' tries to one-up itself

January 31, 2009 | 3:29
pm

"First of all, yes, I realize I'm a loser for doing this."

That's YouTube user handsomepete, in voice-over, introducing a new two-minute video last month. Thanks to some eagle-eye sleuthing, handsomepete seems to have discovered who wins this season of "The Bachelor" -- no, you won't get a spoiler here -- and he appears to be on point.

If this is viral marketing disinformation, it's self-aware and brilliant. (The clip has remained on YouTube, as of this writing, for three weeks.) And if it's just a guy in a room with a flat-screen TV and a webcam, it still serves a function. With what sounds like an embarrassed shrug, handsomepete closes the clip with empathetic self-loathing: "I've just saved you now from having to watch this horrid TV show."

He seems reasonable and unremarkable enough -- he's got a heavy Canadian accent; from other clips on his YouTube page, he's a fan of the Dave Matthews Band and large whales. And he knows "The Bachelor" is rigorously uncool.